A Troublesome Trade
by MaxxRide
Summary: Sakura's legs were destroyed and she was given wings so she could continue to be a ninja, and then a certain lazy genius is assigned to protect her. Mainly ShikaSaku with hints of other couples including GaaSaku, KibaSaku, InoChou, and NaruHina.
1. Surgery and outcome

Story Summary: Sakura's legs were destroyed so she is given wings to still be a ninja. Mainly ShikaSaku possibly hints of GaaSaku, KibaSaku, InoChou, Naruhina, etc.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

**A Troublesome Trade **

Sakura awoke to a throbbing pain in her head as she slowly raised her head. She saw that she was in the hospital, and then she saw a shocked Tsunade standing over her.

"Sakura-" Tsunade began only to get cut off by Sakura's scream as she got a look at her legs on the operating table, which were a bloody mess. It was as if they had imploded.

Sakura was breathing heavily in shock, she was used to pain she was a kunochi after all. But she didn't even remember this…

Sakura almost didn't hear Tsunade as she said, "Sakura, breathe now, don't pass out! I have some things to ask you."

Sakura looked up at her and Tsunade took that as a sign to continue, "Do you remember what happened?"

Sakura slowly shook her head no. Then something hit her. "Where's my team?"

Tsunade gulped and looked down.

Sakura knew what had happened… (A/N: No she was not with team 7 so Sasuke and Naruto are still alive, her teammates were random shinobi she didn't even know)

"Sakura… that's not all, your legs…you have completely loss the use of your legs… except for your very upper thighs. We did all we could… but… there is nothing we can do… right now anyways, I may find something later but… that is very unlikely. I'm afraid you will have quit being a ninja and you will probably be stuck in a wheelchair for good."

Sakura was confused she didn't get it… quit being a ninja? Stuck in a wheelchair? For something she didn't even remember?

Tsunade couldn't stand to look at her handicapped apprentice so she averted her gaze to the ground.

"Is there any other way? Like how Lee recovered? His limbs were also crushed and you were able to-" Sakura blurted out scared and frightened.

Tsunade cut her off to say, "Lee's situation was different, but if you really insist… there is one way. I've never tried it… and I don't know the chances of survival, but they are probably really low and-"

Now it was Sakura's turn to cut off Tsunade to say, "I don't care! Whatever it is just do it now and get it over with!" tears were running down her cheeks as she turned her head and said, "I would never be able live as a handicapped kunochi."

Tsunade was shocked and sad. She hoped that it wouldn't come to this. If the surgery failed she did not want to see her apprentice die. "Sakura," she said, "you should know that the surgery would-" 

"Just do it, I don't care what it is." She stated.

"Ok," Tsunade sighed "Lets start."

She drugged Sakura to knock her out cold while she gave instructions to the other medics and performed the surgery.

(After the surgery)

"Sakura… Sakura…"

Sakura awoke to Tsunade's voice calling her out of a deep slumber. Sakura did not want to wake up but she was eager to find out how the surgery had gone. So she pulled herself out of dreamland.

She realized she was lying on her stomach and when she tried to turn around to lie on her back, a stinging pain ran through her shoulder blade, which made her abruptly lift herself up. She then looked at her legs, which were now bandaged, and she then realized that she still couldn't move them. The thought made her sad thinking that the surgery had failed.

Without looking at her she told Tsunade sadly, "So I see that the surgery failed…"

"No, surprisingly it was a success!" Tsunade exclaimed.

"What?" Sakura asked confused. Then she remembered the pain in her shoulder blade, so she reached her hand to it when her hand collided with something sticking out of her back. It was soft and feathery. 

Sakura looked around to discover that she had wings.

Sakura slowly turned to look at Tsunade in bewilderment.

All Tsunade said was, "You always interrupted me before I could say anything."  
Sakura wanted to yell at Tsunade but she was at a loss for words.

She began to faint but as soon as her wings made contact with the table she shot up in pain. She couldn't lie on her wings.

She spread them out to reveal a 13.5 ft wingspan. Her wings were white with pink streaks, the same pink as her hair.

Tsunade explained, "Your wings use the same melanin that is in your hair so that is where the pink streaks come from. You won't be able to lie on your back for quite a while, maybe a week or so because your back is sore due to the implant of wings. Since you weren't born with wings your body structure is not made for flying, but the super strength I taught you strengthens all the muscles in your body so it shouldn't be too hard for you to fly. We will just have to see." 

-------------- 

Over the next month Sakura had to stay in the hospital to learn to fly and control her wings.

They only had one room with a high enough roof for Sakura to fly in the hospital, which was the rehabilitation room. Tsunade always made sure that Sakura was the only one in the room besides Tsunade herself, when she was flying. She didn't want any of the patients to die of shock.

Once Sakura got so upset when she was having trouble flying that she accidentally made a sunroof with her super strength. It took a while for them to get it fixed.

Tsunade would not allow Sakura to have any visitors until she was in full control of her wings. Which really annoyed Sakura but no matter how much she argued Tsunade would not listen, which caused her to make a sunroof for the second time.

Finally the day came when Sakura was to be let out of the hospital. Tsunade wanted her to have one of her friends to help her get around in case anything was to happen. But all of Sakura's friends were away on missions.

Sasuke, Naruto, Kakashi, and Hinata were on a mission to the Wave country to help prevent a potential war.

Kiba, Shino, Ino, along with Anko were on a mission to the Sand to help prevent the assassination of one of the feudal lords.

Chouji, TenTen, Neji, and Lee were all sent to the Rain to help retrieve an important document.

Shikamaru was sent with Iruka to the Hidden Waterfall village to retrieve the Hero Water that was stolen.

Since everyone was gone, Tsunade told to her to be careful when on her own and that as soon as one of her friends was available she would assign them to Sakura.

Over the next few days it was very hard to get around. Tsunade had taught Sakura how to flutter her wings slightly to float a hair above the ground and move the only part of her legs that she could move, the very upper part of her thighs to make it appear like she was walking. 

But floating above the ground was really hard and tiring so she tried to mostly stay at home. But when she felt that she had to go outside she would go to the vacant rooftop of a certain building she had discovered.

(Sakura had slits cut in the back of her red top so she could move her wings but now she had to wear a jacket over her top or everyone would be able to see her wings, because for now she didn't want anyone to see them.)

When she was there, she would watch the clouds and when there were no clouds she would fly. She was careful that no one could see her, because she was too high up in the sky. It was so peaceful.

After four days of freedom from the hospital Sakura was told that Tsunade needed to see her about something.

So reluctantly (because it was hard for her to get around), she went to see her.

When she got there Tsunade told her, "One of your friends has come back from their missions so I have assigned them to watch over you." 

Sakura began to protest, "But Tsunade, I don't think I need anyone to-" 

Tsunade held up a hand to silence her.

"This is a necessary precaution. I told you I've never performed that operation before so I don't know if there are any side effects. Something could go wrong."

Sakura let out a sigh realizing that Tsunade was right.

"So, who is it?" Sakura asked.

Tsunade answered, "It doesn't matter. I told him to meet you today so you will know soon enough."

Sakura was mad but she just left. Not wanting to fight her sensei.

Sakura noticed as she walked (technically its floated but whatever) over to her favorite cloud watching spot, that Tsunade said him not her when she said "I told him to meet you…" so it had to be a boy.

But who would that be? Sasuke? Naruto? Maybe Lee?

As she was lost in thought, she did not notice someone else was with her.

"You're in my spot." he said flatly referring to the shaded spot on the roof where the pink haired kunochi was currently laying.

"I don't see your name on it." Sakura teased but she really didn't see anything because her eyes were closed. She stretched her arms and sat up before opening her eyes to look at whom she was speaking to. 

"Oh, hey Shikamaru." Sakura said before she moved to the side to make room for Konoha's resident lazy genius.

Shikamaru laid down next to her putting his hands behind his head before answering, "Hi."

Sakura looked up and said, "Look at all the clouds today."

Shikamaru answered, "There are quite a few."

"I wondered what it would be like to fly with them." Sakura said mischievously. Tsunade had told her not to fly unless a friend was with her. She had already disobeyed that once but now she was allowed to with Shikamaru was here. Well, Shikamaru was more like an acquaintance but whatever.

"Nani?" Shikamaru asked confused before he sat up to look at her.

Sakura took off her jacket to reveal her wings. When she outstretched them to prepare for flight, Shikamaru had to duck to avoid getting whacked accidentally with a wing.

Since Sakura couldn't use her legs she couldn't get a running start, which would've made flying a lot easier, what she had to do to fly was flap her wings and lift herself into the sky.

Flying was amazing an indescribable feeling. Sakura loved it.

Shikamaru was staring at her in bewilderment the whole time.

When Sakura came back down she was soaking wet.

"You know clouds aren't as fluffy as you'd think. Instead they are just floating water. Warning: Do not fly through them." Sakura said playfully.

Shikamaru started laughing.

"I can see why Tsunade told me to watch over you." He said.

"Huh?" Sakura said busy wringing out her hair. "You're the one Tsunade assigned to watch over me? Why didn't you say so sooner?"

He shrugged. "Can you explain to me why you have wings? I'm curious."

So she explained the whole thing from wake up to find her legs crushed to waiting for Tsunade to assign someone to her even though she was against it.

"Wow," He said wide-eyed. "So you haven't had a mission in a month?" Sakura nodded. "Lucky, missions are too troublesome." he complained and Sakura rolled her eyes. "And you don't remember what happened to handicap you in the first place?" Sakura shook her head no. "That sucks. But I'm sure you will remember sooner or later."

She smiled lightly, "Thanks."

He laid down again and said, "Now, its time for my nap."

Sakura answered, "Me too."

Then they both fell asleep on the rooftop. 

**A/N: Well, I don't think I made that as long as I wanted it to be, oh well. This story takes place after the time jump when Sasuke was returned to Konoha and Sakura finished her training with Tsunade. I don't how old they are after the time jump but in my story Sakura and Shikamaru are both 15. ******

**The main couple in this story is ShikaSaku because I like this couple and I think there needs to be more ShikaSaku fanfics. But there might be some GaaSaku and KibaSaku and maybe even some NaruHina right now I am not sure. Please review. Give constructive criticism, advice and ideas for the story. Thanks for reading the first chapter and reading this author's note.**


	2. Reunion with friends

"How troublesome. Sakura takes forever to get ready." Shikamaru complained. Tsunade's instructions to watch over Sakura were to be with her from when she wakes up to when she falls asleep. So basically Shikamaru had to go to her house and wait for her every morning.

This mission was unnecessary he thought. Sakura is perfectly capable of getting around and nothing seemed to be wrong with the surgery. It's been a week since I started on this mission and nothing has happened. 

"Oi, Shikamaru. Are you gonna sleep all day or are we actually going to do something?" Sakura asked irritated that Shikamaru was sleeping at her doorway.

Shikamaru opened an eyelid to stare at Sakura. Here he was waiting for her, maybe if she hadn't taken so long he wouldn't have had to take a nap. But arguing only meant more problems so he didn't say anything.

"Where do you plan on going?" he asked.

"To the flower shop to see Ino. I heard that she just got back from her mission to the Sand." Sakura said. Sakura and Ino were friends again because Sakura got over her feelings for Sasuke.

"Fine lets go." he said blankly.

Ignoring his lack of enthusiasm Sakura happily answered "Ok!"

Sakura was still hiding her wings and floating above the grounds to get around but she was getting better at it to the point where she could run. So she speed up ahead of Shikamaru.

"Chotto matte!" (Japanese 'wait a minute') Shikamaru exclaimed while running to catch up with Sakura.

Sakura just looked back and playfully stuck out her tongue at him. Then she turned around and continued running.

She was surprised that he hadn't pulled out Kagemane no Jutsu on her like he did last time she was running ahead of him. When she had asked him why he did that he answered, "Its troublesome but I'm supposed to watch you and I can't do that very well if you're running ahead of me." (A/N: Shikamaru used those hand shadows to grab her feet and put her on the ground to stop her floating) 

Shikamaru sighed

_'she needs to stop doing this its too troublesome'_

Shikamaru stopped to pull out Kagemane no Jutsu on Sakura.

Sakura noticed this and went higher in the air to where Shikamaru couldn't reach her.

'_Spoke too soon'_

"Ha ha!" She laughed seeing Shikamaru fail to catch her.

Shikamaru got frustrated. What was with this girl? He was supposed to watch her but she always did this, expect when they were watching the clouds. Probably Shikamaru's only peaceful moments with the girl.

He gave up. It wasn't worth the effort of catching her. He knew where she was going so He would get to her eventually.

After seeing the shadow recede Sakura got down closer to the ground and picked up her pace.

Once she got to the flower shop she stopped in front of it and waited for Shikamaru. Once he was with her they went inside together. 

"Forehead girl!" Ino happily greeted while racing towards her friend. 

"Ino-Pig!" Sakura answered happily while going towards her friend. (After they became friends again those insults became a joke between friends) 

They gave each other a friendly hug before they began catching up. 

_'These women really are troublesome. After three years I still can't tell if they are getting along or not.'_ Shikamaru thought to himself.

"So how was your mission to the Sand?" Sakura asked.

"It was a success. Nothing really interesting happened though." Ino replied before adding in a playful tone, "Why are you with Shikamaru? Did you two hook up while I was gone? It would be funny actually. One day a family came in here and I over heard the older brother talking to the younger brother. He was telling him that at twelve or so girls go for the cool guys but as they get older they start to go for the smart guys. I wasn't really sure if that was true, but I guess its true for you. First Sasuke then Shikamaru." She laughed a little to herself.

Sakura turned as pink as her hair.

Sakura was quick to clear up the misunderstanding, "No! It's nothing like that! Tsunade just assigned him to look after me when I got out of the hospital. But I'm starting to wish that she had assigned someone else."

"Oh, really? That's too bad because if you were going out you could've gone on a double date with me and Chouji." Ino said.

"Huh? You're dating Chouji? After Naruto told me what had happened at your mission to be a double for the feudal lord's daughter, I thought you were only into skinny guys." Sakura said a tad confused. (A/N: Naruto episode 192)

"Chouji's fat is for his ninjutsu. He is not like those guys whose fat has no purpose." Ino said defensively. (A/N: Ino said something along those lines in episode 192)

"Oh. That makes sense I guess." Sakura replied.

"You know Sakura, Shikamaru is not that bad I mean it could be worse." Ino said.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked confused.

"Well I mean she could've assigned Neji instead.(A/N: Ah, so true I could've made this a NejiSaku fanfic.)" Ino pointed out.

"I guess you're right." Sakura agreed.

Shikamaru was getting irritated

_'Why are these girls talking about me like I'm not here?'_

"Ne, Sakura? Why does Shikamaru have to watch over you? You seem fine to me." Ino asked.

"Ano…" Sakura said a little embarrassed.

Sakura took off her jacket to reveal her wings. Then she outspread them to her full wingspan.

"NANI?" Ino exclaimed before passing out.

Sakura looked over to Shikamaru and said without really meaning it, "That went well."

Shikamaru sighed and said, "This is too troublesome. Now whose gonna manage the shop?"

Sakura muttered under her breath, "Crap."

Then Sakura got an idea. She walked over to one of the watering cans and opened the top. Then she started walking towards Ino.

"What are you planning on doing with that?" Shikamaru asked.

"You can't tell? And here I thought you were supposed to be a genius." Sakura said sarcastically.

Shikamaru scowled.

Sakura then poured the water on Ino.

Ino woke up coughing.

Before Ino could open her eyes Sakura tossed the watering can to Shikamaru. Which he instinctively caught.

When Ino had finished rubbing the water out of her eyes she angrily asked, "Who did that?"

Sakura innocently pointed to Shikamaru who was holding the in question watering can.

"Shikamaru! That's no way to wake someone!" Ino was mad and Inner Ino was fuming. (A/N: Yes there is an Inner Ino who first appeared in episode 192)

Shikamaru scowled again.

_'Troublesome woman. She's blaming me for something she did.'_

Ino punched Shikamaru hard on his left cheek. Which left his cheek pink and swelling.

Sakura gave him an ice pack while he glared at her.

"Gomen nasai, I didn't think she'd hit you that hard." Sakura whispered her apology so that Ino couldn't hear.

Shikamaru just mumbled something along the lines of "Troublesome" but Sakura couldn't really tell.

Then Sakura felt a tug on her wing. She turned to see Ino inspecting it. 

"So these are real?" Ino asked.

Sakura nodded.

"Do you mind explaining?" Ino asked.

Sakura sighed. "Sure why not."

Luckily the flower shop didn't have any customers so Ino could listen to Sakura's full story.

"Wow. So you still don't remember?" Ino asked

Sakura shook her head no.

Ino gave her friend a sympathetic hug. "Look on the bright side. Now you can fly! How many ninja can do that? Hey, flying could be really convenient for getting to the front of long lines at the mall." Ino told her.

They both laughed while Shikamaru was still tending to his hurt cheek.

A customer came in and Ino told her friends goodbye.

"I'm busy now but maybe some other time we can go a big shopping trip!" Ino suggested.

"I'd like that." Sakura said as she and Shikamaru left.

'I wouldn't' Shikamaru thought to himself.

"What now?" Shikamaru asked.

"Let's go to the training field. Maybe some people we know are there." Sakura suggested. Then she looked at Shikamaru's cheek, which was almost fully healed. "And then I'll treat you to ramen for dinner! Since you got hurt because of me." Sakura added. 

"Whatever." Shikamaru muttered.

"Ok! It's decided!" Sakura happily announced.

(Later at the Training Field and after lunch)

"Oi! Hinata!" Sakura greeted her friend who was in the middle of sparring with Neji. To their left TenTen and Lee were sparring. To their right Shino was bug collecting.

"Sakura!" Hinata happily exclaimed. She hadn't seen her friend in over a month.

Hinata and Neji both had their byakugan active so they were both looking at Sakura whose chakra circulatory system was crushed and destroyed in the legs and who had her chakra circulatory system branching off into her wings.

"Sakura are you okay?" Hinata asked concerned

"Of course I am! Why do you-" Sakura said until she realized that her friend was still using her byakugan. "Oh, well to explain. On my last mission I kinda lost the use of my legs due to an accident I can't remember." Sakura explained nervously.

"Then how are you able to walk?" Hinata asked confused.

"Because of these." Sakura then took off her jacket to expose her wings for the second time that day.

Hinata fainted and Neji went wide-eyed.

"I just knew that was going to happen." Sakura sighed to herself. She then tucked her wings in and pressed them into her back.

"Hey Lee!" Sakura said trying to get the attention of her sparring friend.

"Hello Sakura! Its good to see you out of the hospital." Lee greeted. 

"Thanks Lee. Can you please get some water from the stream to wake Hinata with? She passed out." Sakura asked.

"Hai!" Lee saluted and ran off.

TenTen pouted slightly at the lost of her partner. But then she didn't care because she was happy to see Sakura.

"Ohayo, Sakura! Its good to see you!" TenTen greeted while running over to her friend.

"Hi TenTen! Good to see you too!" Sakura happily answered.

"Hello Sakura." Said a familiar voice from right besides Sakura.

Sakura and Shikamaru both turned to see Shino.

_'When did he get there?'_ They both thought to themselves. 

"Oh, Hi Shino! Nice to see you!" Sakura said happily it was nice to see everyone after a month of isolation in the hospital and two weeks of waiting for everyone expect Shikamaru to get back from their missions.

Lee returned with water and splashed Hinata awake.

Once Hinata quit coughing and opened her eyes, Sakura greeted her "Konnichiwa."

"Now that Hinata is awake can you explain why you have wings?" Neji spoke up.

Sakura sighed. She was gonna have to tell the story for the second time that day.

"Nani?" Lee and TenTen both exclaimed at the same time and Shino had a questioning look on his face.

Sakura outspread her wings to show them to the three.

Lee and TenTen were really surprised and Shino's eyebrows were raised. 

"Ok. Shikamaru and anyone who wants to hear the story please sit down." Sakura told everyone.

They all sat cross legged expect Shikamaru who was laying down watching the clouds and Sakura who had to sit with her legs out in front of her because her knees were no longer bendable.

After she told the story Hinata and TenTen both gave her sympathetic hugs. And Sakura had to answer their questions and then she and Shikamaru both left saying goodbye to all their friends.

Then it was dark out as Sakura and Shikamaru were walking around Konoha. 

"Now its time for ramen!" Sakura happily announced. After a month of hospital food Sakura was craving all the foods she was depraved of. 

When they got to Ichiraku they saw Chouji already in the middle of dinner. 

"Oi, Chouji." Shikamaru greeted.

"Oi, Shikamaru!" Chouji happily answered.

"Hey Chouji!" Sakura said.

"Hello Sakura! I see you got out of the hospital. I ran into Ino she told me what happened." Chouji told her.

Sakura was relieved that she didn't have to tell the story for a third time today.

Shikamaru and Sakura both ordered and were talking to Chouji about his mission to the Rain when a familiar voice rang out from behind… 

"Sakura-chan!" 

Sakura hearing the voice she automatically knew it was Naruto.

Naruto gave his friend a flying hug. "Sakura-chan! It's so good to see you! I haven't seen you in over a month!"

"Uh… Nice to see you too. Now GET OFF ME!" Sakura said nearly screaming the last part.

Naruto quickly backed off. He put his hand behind his head in a nervous gesture. "Sorry, Sakura-chan I just really missed you."

Sakura smiled. She had really missed her friend's crazy antics. "Its okay Naruto. I missed you too."

"Well, well if it isn't Naruto on a date with Hinata I see. Where have you been lately?" Shikamaru asked.

"I was on a mission to the Wave. You know to help stop the potential war." Naruto informed him.

"I wouldn't be surprised if you started the war." Sakura teased. 

"Sakura-chan. That's mean." Naruto pouted.

Sakura stuck her tongue out playfully and said, "You know I was just kidding Naruto. Don't take it seriously."

"Oh, hey Hinata!" Sakura greeted after seeing her next to Naruto. "Are you two really on a date?"

Hinata blushed and then shyly nodded.

"What about you two? Are you on a date with Shikamaru?" Naruto asked Sakura.

"No." Sakura said irritated. Just because they usually didn't hang out together, why did everyone think they're dating?

"Hey, Shikamaru. Is there any place you want to go to tomorrow?" Sakura asked.

"Not really. Why do you ask?" Shikamaru said.

"Because Tsunade-shishou told you to be with me at all times and I was starting to wonder if I was keeping you from doing some things that you wanted to do-" Sakura said until she got cut off.

Naruto was showing Hinata to her seat when he bumped into Shikamaru. Shikamaru's and Sakura's faces were pretty close cause they were talking and when Naruto bumped into Shikamaru, their faces collided and so did their lips.

Sakura and Shikamaru stared at each other wide eyed for a moment. But then Sakura punched him in the face to get out of the kiss.

Sakura and Shikamaru were both wiping off their lips with their hands and Shikamaru was using his other hand to tend to his swollen cheek. 

"SHI-KA-MA-RU!" Sakura threatened very, very angrily.

"Uh, gomen Sakura I bumped into Shikamaru. Its my fault." Naruto said being very honest.

Sakura's anger was redirected at Naruto. She punched him as hard as she could and sent him flying out of Ichiraku. He landed on the street injured and out cold.

"Naruto!" Hinata cried as she raced towards her date.

"Oops. Sorry Hinata. I guess I just ruined your date." Sakura said trying to put as much sincerity into the word as possible with her still being mad at Naruto.

Chouji and Shikamaru were both trying to smother their laughs with their hands.

Sakura felt a stinging pain in her wing. She took off her jacket to inspect it. Nothing seemed wrong but then her vision went weird. It was like the world's color got screwed up and changed without her knowing. 

She shut her eyes tight.

"Sakura, are you okay?" Shikamaru asked concerned.

Sakura opened her eyes and her vision was normal. She looked at Shikamaru and said, "Yeah, I'm fine."

She then looked to see that Ayame-san and Teuchi-san (A/N: the people who work at Ichiraku, I think that is what their names are) had fainted at the sight of her wings.

"Ah, Crap! Now how am I gonna get my food?" Sakura cried out exasperated.

(The Next Day)

"Yawn! What to do today Shikamaru?" Sakura asked as they were walking around Konoha in the morning.

"How about nothing?" Shikamaru said blankly

Sakura rolled her eyes.

"You're no fun." Sakura pouted.

Sakura noticed Sasuke and Kakashi out of the corner of her eye.

"Ohayo, Sasuke! Ohayo, Kakashi!" Sakura greeted happily as she ran towards her teammates that she hadn't seen in a long time.

Shikamaru lazily followed her.

"Konnichiwa, Sakura! Good to see you out of the hospital." Kakashi said happily. 

"Hey, Sakura." Sasuke said.

"So what are you guys doing?" Sakura asked.

Sasuke shrugged. "Nothing really just walking around Konoha."

"Same with us. Because neither me or Shikamaru here can think of something to do." Sakura told him.

"Are you two on a date?" Sasuke asked.

"No. Tsunade just asked him to watch over me after I got out of the hospital." Sakura sighed.

Sasuke smiled inwardly.

_'Great! She's not dating him so I can still ask her out.' __  
_  
"Tsunade told us the whole story about what happened. But she didn't mention that Shikamaru was watching over you." Kakashi told her.

"Good, because I'm kind of tired of telling the story to everyone. She probably didn't tell you because she didn't plan it to be Shikamaru; he was just the first person to get back from a mission. When did she tell you?" Sakura asked.

"Well, when Naruto was mad at Tsunade-sama for not letting you have any visitors. He wanted to know why. He was being so loud and annoying that Tsunade finally explained what happened to you. Sasuke and I were with him, so we all heard the story." Kakashi informed her. 

"Same old Naruto." Sakura rolled her eyes.

_'Am I even here?'_ Shikamaru thought bitterly.

_'Now its time to ask Sakura out!'_ Sasuke thought happily.

"Hey Sakura. Do you want to-" Sasuke was cut off.

"Oi! Sakura! Shikamaru! Tsunade-sama asked to see us for a mission. Let's go!" Kiba ran pass them saying.

"Yosh! Finally something to do! Come on Shikamaru!" Sakura got a hold of Shikamaru's sleeve and dragged him causing him to run awkwardly alongside the floating kunochi.

When Sakura and Shikamaru caught up to Kiba, they all went running to the Hokage's office. They were all eager for a new mission, all except Shikamaru of course.

"Bye Sasuke! Bye Kakashi!" Sakura waved goodbye with the hand that wasn't holding onto Shikamaru's sleeve.  
_  
__'Damn it.'_ Sasuke cursed in his head.

**A/N: Yay! I finally finished the second chapter! You know when I was typing in 'byakugan' my computer kept using autocorrect on the word to change it to 'brakeman' weird huh? Then when I typed in 'Neji' my computer said it was misspelled and one of the spelling suggestions was 'Nazi'. My computer is kinda stupid. ******

**Just so you know, I don't think that Sasuke was OOC in this chapter. In one episode he said that his life goal was something along the lines of 'kill my brother' and 'resurrect my clan'. He already killed his brother. He can't resurrect his clan without a girlfriend, and Sakura is only girl who ever had a crush on him that he can actually stomach. So of course he needs to ask her out. But like I said in the first chapter 'I don't own Naruto' so I can't make him like Sakura its just my opinion. But I like ShikaSaku, GaaSaku, NejiSaku, and KibaSaku better. ******

**Please review!**


	3. New Mission

"Okay, now that all of you are here I will tell you your mission." Tsunade stated before explaining the details, "The Hidden Waterfall village is falling apart, so a last effort they are planning to attack the Sand Village. Iruka overheard their plans while on his mission to the Waterfall Village with Shikamaru. We've already sent a letter to the Sand warning them, but they are still recovering from when the Akatsuki attacked and their KazeKage was captured. So they asked for a group of ninjas from Konoha to help. The Hidden Waterfall Village is very small so not that many ninja are needed to defeat them. A group of three Konoha chuunin, e.i. you guys, and a jounin from the Sand should be enough."

"No disrespect Tsunade-sama, but it seems as though you might be underestimating the opponent." Shikamaru said.

"Shikamaru, you've been to the Hidden Waterfall Village, you know how small they are. You know what the Hero Water does; It increases the user's chakra, its eats at his/her lifeforce. If you can't finish them quickly just drag out the battle until they are all unable to continue. At the very most they will send twenty-five ninja, a mix of genins, chuunins, and a few jounin." Tsunade informed him. Before he could argue she continued, "Don't forget that in your four person group you have a medic ninja, and I can always send backup if things go wrong. Okay?"

Shikamaru just sighed.

_'This is going to be really troublesome.'_

"Wow, I'm finally going on a mission after almost six weeks." Sakura said.

"Huh? Oh right you were in the hospital for a month. When I was told to get you guys I was also told about what happened." Kiba said. "Wait, how can she go on this mission with her condition?"

"She took the surgery to continue being a ninja. She will be fine." Tsunade stated.

"Yeah, don't underestimate me Kiba." Sakura told him.

_'Is it a bad thing to be concerned about someone?' _ He asked in his head.

"So who is the Sand ninja that will be accompanying us?" Sakura asked. 

"I wasn't told who it was, so you will find out when you get there." Tsunade answered before adding, "The leader of the group for this mission will be the Sand Ninja, but until you meet up with him/her Shikamaru will be the leader. Now take the mission scroll and leave the village by 3 o clock this afternoon. Its 11:30 right now you have three and a half hours. Now go!"

They all left quickly.

Sakura and Shikamaru had to part to each get ready in time.

Sakura just packed the necessities and same with Shikamaru. And they met up with Kiba and Akamaru (of course) at the entrance to the village at 3:00.

They started traveling. They were told on the mission scroll that the Sand was three days away, but they would meet up with the Sand ninja after a day worth of travel and he/she would take them to where they would fight.

Since they started traveling a 3 o clock they would meet the Sand nin the next afternoon.

As they were traveling, Sakura couldn't stand the silence, so she tried to start a conversation.

"So, who do we know that's a Sand nin?"

"There's Kankuro, the dude who saved me three years ago." Kiba answered. 

"That girl Temari, she's the one who helped me out on the same mission three years ago." Shikamaru said.

"And then there's Gaara. The current KazeKage." Sakura said answering her own question.

"That guy became the Kazekage?" Kiba asked surprised.

"Yeah, you didn't know that?" Sakura answered. "I mean you did just come back from a mission to the Sand a few days ago."

"I forgot, so sue me." Kiba said bitterly.

_'Great, now they think I'm stupid.'_

"So it can't be Gaara, as the Kazekage he would be too busy. The chances of it being Temari or Kankuro are really low. So it will probably be someone we don't know." Shikamaru changed the subject slightly so that Kiba would stop sulking.

They continued talking about various things that I'm too lazy to mention.

Then sometime late at night they found a cave indented into the side of a large mountain, that they decided to camp out in. Sakura spread out her wings before she went to sleep so she was taking up more than half the cave. When the boys noticed they were both irritated and amused at the same time.

(Later that Night)

Sakura awoke to a trance-like state. She opened her eyes, her body was awake but her soul was asleep so all she could see was her dream not reality. (A/N: She's not sleepwalking this is much different.) 

She walked to the edge of the cave and began to fall. She would've been dead if a dark figure had not caught her.

"Oi, Gaara! What did you just catch?" The dark figure's (Gaara's) companion asked him.

"Some girl. She walked off the edge of the that cave." Gaara told his companion.

"Really? Do you know who she is?" His companion came up and looked at Sakura. "She looks familiar, but I can't tell in the dark." 

Gaara could. He knew who it was and guilt overcame him.

"I don't know who it is either." He lied.

"She must be from Konoha. So the group is up there. Why are they a day late?"

"Wait, the Konoha group that was sent to help up beat the Hidden Waterfall Village isn't supposed to meet up with you until tomorrow. You got the days mixed up. Wait, that's why you dragged me out here in the middle of the night?" Gaara was irritated.

"Oops. My bad." His companion said. "Oh well since my already here I guess I'll stay with them and tell them in the morning."

"Ok, and take this girl with you." Gaara said handing the sleeping girl over to his companion. "I'm going back to the village." and with that he left.

His companion returned Sakura to the cave and they both stayed there until morning.

(The Next Morning)

Kiba, Shikamaru, and Sakura all woke up at the same time.

"Ohayo, team!" The Sand Ninja greeted.

"Temari?" Shikamaru immediately recognized the ninja.

"The chances of it being someone we know are low, bah." Sakura mocked. 

**A/N: Sorry its so short this just seemed like a good point to end it at. I wanted to write another chapter of this story before I started my other story that is a GaaSaku fanfic. Oh crap, I make it sound like I'm discontinuing this. Well I'm not; it will just take me longer to update. Thanks to all the people who have reviewed so far! ******

**Reply to MistressBlossom: I don't think I put any NejiSaku in this story, sorry. I'll try but right now I don't see how I can. But I've got ideas for two NejiSaku fanfics that I will be writing soon.**


	4. The Fight Against Waterfall

Shikamaru scowled at Sakura's last comment.

"Huh? Why are you here? I thought we were supposed to meet up with you this afternoon." Kiba asked/said.

"Uh…Well I messed up and thought that you guys were supposed to meet me yesterday so I went to look for you guys. I found you here, read your mission scroll, realized that I was early and decided to wait here and tell you when you woke." Temari told them. Partly true partly lies.

"Oh." Kiba responded.

"So what's the plan?" Sakura asked. (Just so you know Sakura doesn't remember what happened to her last night)

"Well, we've discovered their base. It's just a mile outside of Suna's gates. Twenty-three ninja. We're not sure how many jounin, chuunin, or genin there are. We were supposed to infiltrate their base this afternoon but I guess we can go now and be a little ahead of schedule. So basically we get them with a surprise attack and defeat them before they get anywhere near my village. Got it?" Temari informed them.

They all nodded.

"Ok. We're gonna attack in two groups. Shikamaru and Kiba in the first one and me and Sakura in the other. We will attack from opposite sides so that they have nowhere to run okay? Its pretty simple." Temari handed them all communicators. "Don't attack until I give the signal and if anything goes wrong tell us over the communicator." 

"How will we know where the base is?" Sakura asked.

"We are all traveling together. I will lead you all there and once we get there we will split up okay? Lets go." Temari started running off with the others following her.

(Later when they were nearing the base)

"Someone's coming." Kiba said.

"What?" Temari asked.

"A group of maybe ten ninja are headed this way." Kiba was using his nose to find out how many ninja were coming.

"Did they know we were coming?" Sakura asked Temari.

"Not likely. I'll bet this is a coincidence. They are probably headed to attack my village right now and we just happened to run into them." Temari stopped and everyone did the same.

"Change of plans. Shikamaru, Kiba sneak past the approaching ninja and head to the base and fight without us. Sakura and I will fight these ninja and meet you there when we're done." Temari said.

"Good plan, except that Kiba and I have no idea where the base is." Shikamaru said.

Temari sweatdropped.

"Oh, right. Its twenty meters east of here now go!"

They sped off.

"Sakura, get behind me." Temari ordered.

Sakura pulled out a kunai and got behind Temari when a Waterfall ninja tried attacking her from behind so Sakura ended up in front of Temari just when she was pulling out her fan to take down the approaching ninja. 

When Temari used her wind fan Sakura ended up flying up into the air because of the sudden push of air on her wings. She ended up getting pinned up against a tree.

"Dammit Temari! You nearly killed me!" Sakura yelled at her.

"Hey, I told you get behind me! I warned you!" Then Temari noticed something. "Uh, Sakura?" Temari pointed to the tree Sakura was pinned against.

"What?" Sakura then noticed the dead body of the Waterfall ninja that her kunai was pinning to the tree and the blood running over her hand that was holding the kunai.

"Ahh!" Sakura screamed and jumped away from any contact with the tree or the dead body. The jump would've killed her if she didn't have wings, but it was a good thing she did. So she was just floating in the air. 

"Lets see that's seven down. Where are the other three?" Temari said counting the bodies of the people her fan had killed and the one Sakura killed.

Two of the remaining ninja came up behind Temari.

"Temari watch out!" Sakura warned her. Sakura quickly attached two kunai that were pointing down to the bottom of her feet using chakra. She pulled her wings in and started dropping down out of the air very rapidly.

She landed with a THUD!

She had one foot on each ninja's back pinning them to the ground. Their blood was leaking out from under Sakura's feet out of the openings her kunais made. They were both dead.

"Whoa, nice job." Temari commented.

Sakura flew off the dead bodies and floated next to Temari.

"That's nine down. Kiba said there were ten. I guess he was wrong. I don't sense an enemy's chakra nearby. So lets go assist Kiba and Shikamaru." Sakura nodded to Temari and they both took off. 

(Later when they reached the base)

Sakura and Temari found Shikamaru and Kiba with a pile of thirteen dead Waterfall ninja at their feet.

"Hey guys!" Temari called and jumped out of the tree she and Sakura were standing on. Leaving Sakura who still had her wings spread out looking around and inspecting the base.

"What happened?" Temari asked.

"Shikamaru got them with Kagemane no Jutsu and me and Akamaru knocked them all down dead with Gatsuga while they were paralyzed. It was pretty easy." Kiba announced proudly.

"Well I guess that's that. They go and report back to Suna." Temari suggested.

_'This is kinda weird. I mean the Waterfall village was a starting a war. It all just seems so easy and anticlimactic. Wait, Temari said there was twenty-three. Kiba and Shikamaru killed thirteen. Temari and I killed nine. So where's the last-' __  
_  
Sakura was cut off by the sudden contact of a knife digging into her flesh. A blood covered pink-streaked feather pasted by her line of vision. She tried to turn her head to see the attacker was.

Someone screaming "Sakura!" was the last thing she heard…

**A/N: Sorry I took so long to update! I had writer's block for a week and then I was at a place away from computers for a week. Sorry that I suck at battle scenes and that this chapter seems a bit rushed.**

**IMPORTANT!**

**I'm probably going to discontinue this because people keep taking this story off their favorites list and it's starting to get to me. And my other story is much more popular. So if no one likes this story, there is no point in continuing it. So if you like this story tell me through a review or something and if I get enough requests to continue I'll continue it.**


	5. Surprise, Surprise

Gaara wiped a loose strand of pink hair off the sleeping girl's face and put it behind her ear.

"Gaara? Why are you here?" The girl coming in through the window asked. "Visiting hours ended a long time ago."

Gaara looked up to see his sister Temari. The reason he was here so late at night was because he was insomniac. And he didn't what to be here when other people were here.

"The Hokage doesn't allow visitors for this girl period. So it wouldn't matter if I came within normal hospital visiting hours." Gaara said. "So why are you here?"

"Looking for you. I had a feeling you'd be here." Temari told me.

"Then why did you ask me why I'm here?" Gaara said a bit irritated at his sister.

"Because I wanted to know if you were here because of your heart or because of your conscience." she looked over to her brother expecting to see him glaring at her but instead there was a hint of sadness in his eyes. He wanted her to leave. "Gaara, I figured out that this was the girl not long after I met up with her team in the morning. The pink hair is hard to miss when it's not the dead of night."

She looked at her brother again to see him looking at the girl sleeping peacefully on the hospital bed.

She sighed. "You're not gonna tell her. Are you?" she said her words had a hint of sympathy and sadness in them.

"I can't. You know that." Gaara said sadly and sighed.

She sighed again.

"Well Suna needs their Kazekage more than a sleeping girl that doesn't even know that you are here needs you. So be sure to be back by morning." Temari said. She then left by way of the window.

A few minutes after Temari left Gaara sighed again. Then he closed his eyes, raised two fingers to his mouth and disappeared in a blur of sand.

(The Next Morning)

Sakura hated it in the hospital. She felt like a wounded bird in a cage.

Why was she even here? Oh right. The nurse had told her when she had first woke up in hospital.

A Waterfall ninja had stuck a kunai through her wing and that was when she passed out.

Then Kiba killed the last ninja with his Gatsuya jutsu and Shikamaru had caught her when she fell from the branch she and the Waterfall ninja had been standing on.

Since the mission was over they decided to go back to Konoha and take her to get medical treatment. Temari had come along also, but once Sakura was in the hospital and they told her team that she would be all right Temari had left to tell Suna the good news of the successful mission.

And now Sakura was to be stuck in the hospital for a month until her clipped wing healed.

"Damn it. I can't even have any visitors. Damn you Tsunade-shishou!" Sakura cursed angrily. She was really short tempered because it had already been three weeks in the hospital and Sakura wasn't allowed to do anything. She was really bored.

Sakura laid back down on the bed and let her head hit the pillow. She then stared at the ceiling to see if she could make a hole in it so she could escape by glaring at it. Unfortunately it wasn't working.

She decided to take a nap.

But she wasn't able to get to sleep. She was just lying down with her eyes closed, so she was unable to notice the many figures sneaking into her room.

Then she heard a small click and a lot of people shouting, "Surprise!"

Her eyes immediately shot open and she sat up. And she saw…

Darkness? What? Was she asleep or something? She began to rub her eyes.

"Idiot! Who turned off the lights!"

"Oops my bad!"

"Baka! Why'd you do that?"

"Well, usually for surprises like this, the lights are off and then someone turns them on. I guess it became a habit."

"You moron! The lights were already on!" Sakura then heard a loud 'Bonk!' and another click.

Then the lights went back on.

Sakura saw Ino standing next to the light switch and Naruto next to her rubbing the bump on his head. She couldn't help but smile.

She then turned to the many people surrounding the bed. She heard somebody say, "Uh… surprise?"

"Well, I guess that Naruto ruined that with his light switch stunt. Oh well. Happy Birthday Sakura!" Ino said walking over to the bed.

Then everybody started saying Happy Birthday to Sakura.

Sakura was confused for a moment. She then turned to the calendar in her room and realized that it was her birthday but she had forgotten. God, its really sad when someone forgets their own birthday.

"We come bearing cake!" TenTen shouted happily as she pranced in with Tsunade carrying a huge cake that said 'Happy Birthday Sakura!' it had sixteen lit candles on it.

Sakura looked around the room as TenTen set the cake down in front of her on the bed.

She saw TenTen, Tsunade, Ino, and Naruto of course. She also saw Sasuke, Kakashi, Neji, Lee, Chouji, Kankuro, Hinata, Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru.

She then noted the huge pile of presents besides her bed.

She felt like a little kid at a birthday party. She thought it was odd for a kunochi to have a little party like this. Oh, well it beat trying to glare a hole through the ceiling so she let it go.

She blew out the candles and everyone sang Happy Birthday. Then they cut up the cake and gave everyone a piece and with all the people in the room the cake was soon gone.

"Open the presents!" TenTen said.

"Huh?" Sakura looked up from the cake she was eating and put it on her nightstand next to the bed so she could eat it later.

She then turned to the pile of presents. "Which one should I open?" Sakura asked.

Ino just shoved a random present into her arms and said, "Open it!"

For the presents:

Chouji gave her a bag of cherry blossom flavored chips and a box of strawberry pocky.

TenTen gave her a weapon scroll.

Shino gave her a bug collecting kit.

Hinata gave her a pair of boots with hidden pockets for boot knives.

Neji gave her a pair of gloves that were equipped with knives that could swing out and be put back in.

Lee gave her a green spandex suit exactly like his own. Sakura thanked him but on the inside she couldn't wait to go home and it burn it.

Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi gave her a joint present of a charm bracelet with pictures of team seven on it.

Kiba gave her a bag of food pills and soldier pills.

Tsunade gave her seeds for a cherry blossom tree.

Kankuro was about to give her his present when-

"Kankuro?" Sakura said confused.

"What?"

"Nothing I just didn't expect you to be here."

"Well you did save my life and helped rescue Gaara so I thought I should come to say Happy Birthday and give you this-" He handed her a very big present box.

She opened it and found little wooden puppets. There was one was of her, Sasuke, Naruto, Kakashi, Kiba and Akamaru, Temari, Gaara, Kankuro, and Shikamaru.

"Wow." She said.

"You know I use puppets for my jutsu so making these little puppets is good practice for when I try to make human sized puppets." Kankuro explained.

"There's a lot. These must have taken you a long time."

"Oh, I almost forgot this is a joint present from me, Temari, and Gaara. They helped me make them so it didn't take so long. And that's why there's so many. I made one of you and the team that helped save Gaara, one of me and my siblings and the team that you were with when you got injured."

"Thanks Kankuro! And tell Temari and Gaara that I said thanks too." Sakura said. "But why aren't there any strings?"

Kankuro laughed. "You use chakra strings to control it." He picked up the Temari puppet to show her how to do it.

Sakura grabbed the puppet closest to her hand, which happened to be the Sasuke puppet.

Sakura began trying to use chakra strings to control it.

Then Sasuke remembered something he wanted to do.

"Hey Sakura?"

"Huh? What Sasuke-kun?"

"Do you want to go out-"

"Hey I did it!" Sakura cheered as she was successfully controlling the Sasuke puppet. She didn't hear Sasuke second attempt to ask her out.

Sasuke cursed in his head because he was unable to ask Sakura out but at the same time blushed seeing Sakura control a dancing mini version of him.

Sakura put the Sasuke puppet back with the others and then noticed something.

She looked at the Shikamaru puppet.

"Hey, where is Shik-"

Ino quickly cut her off before anyone else heard her. "Hey Sakura! You haven't opened my present!"

"Oh, right sorry Ino." Sakura said. She forgot what she was saying before Ino cut her off.

She opened Ino's present to find a red choker with black hearts and other patterns on it and a small oval of metal on the front of the choker that had her name engraved on it.

Then she noticed that on the backside of the choker in the exact same place as her name was another oval of metal. But this metal was pink and it looked like it could be engraved into very easily with a pencil.

Sakura looked from the choker to back up at Ino in confusion.

"It's a love charm. You write the name of the person you like on the pink metal. And it's said that it will bring good luck to you, the one you like, and your relationship." Ino winked at her.

Sakura thanked her but Sakura didn't really think that she had anybody she liked as more than a friend at the moment.

Then the little party was pretty much over and everyone was about to leave when an unexpected visitor showed up…

**  
****A/N: Well obviously I'm continuing this story. So I'm gonna finish it whether you like it or not! Bwa ha ha! jk. People were telling me to continue this and I got added to this C2 called 'stories that should be read more!' so I figured I might as well finish this story. Also my mind has too many ideas for this story to let them go to waste. And I started a new ShikaSaku story and finally started writing my two NejiSaku stories!**

**I made up the whole thing with the love charm choker just so you know. **

**Also, as you can see that I continued my torturing of Sasuke by not letting him be able to ask Sakura out! Bwa ha ha I am evil! jk. But its just weird that I have control over him in this story so I can make him look as stupid as I want! He he he… **

**Sasuke: Oh great, a crazy psycho is in charge of me in this story.**  
**  
****Maxx: Hey! I'm not a psycho! Don't insult me or I shall turn you gay and make you date Chouji! Bwa ha ha! **

**Sasuke: Okay. Sorry. Oh god, I'm scared now. **

**Ino: Hey Chouji's mine! Make Sasuke fall in love with Jiraiya or something! **

**Maxx: Not a bad idea. He he he… **

**Sasuke: Oh great, you gave her an idea to torture me with! I'm doomed! Gee, thanks Ino! **

**Ino: You're Welcome! **

**No offense to any yaoi fans and sorry Sasuke fans. **

**And no I'm not high; I just had a little too much sugar. **

**Please Review!**


	6. Temporary Bodyguard

There standing in the doorway of Sakura's hospital room was Suna's Kazekage.

"Gaara! What are you doing here?" Kankuro asked his brother.

Sakura looked at Gaara. He looked at her for a split second before averting his gaze to the wall. Sakura thought that it seemed like he was avoiding eye contact with Sakura.

Then Gaara turned to his brother and said plainly, "I'm here to collect you. You're needed for a mission."

"Ok. The party is pretty much over anyway. Bye Sakura!" Kankuro said waving goodbye to Sakura. _'I don't get why Gaara came in person though.'_ Kankuro thought to himself.

"Where's Temari?" Gaara asked.

"Oh, I heard that she was on a date." Kankuro told his brother.

"A date?" Gaara growled through clenched teeth obviously a little angry at his sister.

Gaara and Kankuro walked out of the room but before they left completely Gaara turned to Sakura and said, "Happy Birthday." Then he left.

The room stayed quiet for a minute before everyone started talking again. But everyone left and said goodbye about ten minutes later. Then Sakura went to sleep but she was happy that everyone had cleaned up the hospital room before they left because Tsunade wouldn't let Sakura get out of her bed.

(A Week Later)

"I. Am. So. Bored." Sakura growled. Even after the birthday party she still wasn't aloud to have visitors.

Random thoughts popped into her head trying to rid her of her boredom. One thought in particular interested her.

She remembered the love triangle her team used to have.

Naruto liked her, she liked Sasuke, but who did Sasuke like? An evil smile appeared on Sakura's face. What if he liked Naruto?

Sakura pulled out her Sasuke and Naruto puppets and gave herself a little puppet show.

Sasuke: Naruto, um…this is kinda embarrassing but I love you.

Naruto: Dude, WTF?

Then she started the puppet show over and made it so that Naruto felt the same way. So she made the two puppets make out while she remained impassive looking at them in a trance of utter boredom.

Then her hospital door opened and Kiba showed up. But Sakura didn't notice.

"Hey Sakura good news! I-" He then saw the puppets of Naruto and Sasuke making out. His eyebrow started twitching.

"Huh? Oh hi Kiba!" She said as she noticed him and snapped out of her trance. She put the puppets down.

"Uh, Sakura… I didn't know that you were a yaoi fan. I guess that's cool but Naruto and Sasuke? That's just…" Kiba said trying to be nice.

"What? I'm not a yaoi fan! I'm just so bored! And I do weird things when I'm bored! And these antiseptic fumes are making me high!" Sakura said.

"Okay. I guess that's what happens when they stick you in the hospital for a month with no visitors except that party." Kiba said just wanting to get off the weird subject, get rid of the mental images of the Naruto and Sasuke puppets now being imprinting in his mind against his will, and forget it ever happened.

"Okay then. Lets get off this subject and talk about something else. But Kiba could you do me a favor and not tell Naruto or Sasuke about this?"

"Do you think I want to tell them? Of course I won't tell them." Kiba said, "And now I can tell you why I'm here. Tsunade said you are now free to leave the hospital." Once Sakura was finished punching the air and screaming in delight Kiba continued, "But Shikamaru is on a mission right now so I'll be looking after you until he gets back."

Sakura nodded and said "Ok."

Then she and Kiba gathered up her stuff and dropped it off at her house. Then they were just walking along the streets of Konoha.

"Do you want to get some ramen?" Kiba suggested. Sakura happily said yes and Akamaru barked happily.

"Huh? Naruto?" Sakura said confused looking around.

"What's wrong?" Kiba asked.

"I thought I heard someone say, "Yay! I want Naruto!" But I don't see anyone who could have said that." Sakura told him.

Now Kiba was confused. Sakura said she heard someone say, "Yay! I want Naruto!" and that's just what he heard Akamaru say. But to everyone else it was just barking. Could Sakura speak dog?

Akamaru barked again.

Sakura smiled and said "Well I guess all Akamaru's barking means he agrees with us and wants ramen too." she petted Akamaru.

Kiba decided that Sakura couldn't speak dog and shrugged it off as coincidence.

They started talking again once they got their ramen and in Akamaru's case the naruto fish cakes.

"I think that Tsunade-shishou is paranoid. I mean it's been over two months since the operation. Nothing has happened so I think that I'll be fine. Not that I don't want your company Kiba." Sakura said.

"Maybe you will be fine but you never know. I mean Hokage-sama is one of the legendary sannin, so I respect her judgment. She's just trying to make sure nothing bad happens to you." Kiba pointed out.

"Yeah I know." Sakura said. Then she remembered something. "Was Shikamaru on that mission you talked about earlier during my birthday party? Is that why he wasn't there?"

"Huh? No he left for that mission just yesterday. I heard he was on a date with that girl Temari." Kiba told her.

Sakura almost choked on her ramen.

"A date? With Temari?" Sakura asked confused.

"Yeah, but I don't get it. He could've rescheduled and still come to your party." Kiba said.

Sakura thought that he was right.

She finished her ramen and said, "I'm going to go fly for a bit. I haven't been high up in the air for a month."

"Ok, come back here once you're done." Kiba said.

Sakura began rising in the air. Flying was an indescribable feeling. She loved it, but if she had a choice she probably would want her legs back.

She was high enough in the air to where she was flying among the clouds. She was really happy, and her pink hair was flying around her face.

Then she noticed some birds giving her a weird look. She laughed at that.

She looked down at Konoha. All the people looked like little ants.

Then pain shot through her back and she began losing altitude. She even fell through a cloud and she couldn't stop falling.

**A/N: Yeah I know, this is really short but I thought that was a good ending point for this chapter and I was really busy trying to update all my stories today and starting my six new stories, three ShikaSaku stories, a KibaSaku story, a random story pairing Sakura up with everyone in Akatsuki, and a story I created just to torture Sasuke by turning him into a puppet!**

**And here I am with the best friends that a fan fiction writer can have! Mentos, mambas, and pocky! In other words I'm sugar high! **

**Sasuke: (pukes after reading the chapter)**

**Maxx: What's wrong with you?**

**Sasuke: That was sick! I mean with the puppets. **

**Maxx: Hey, they were just puppets. It's not like I actually made you make out with Naruto.**

**Sasuke: It's still gross.**

**Maxx: You obviously haven't read any SasuNaru fanfictions. Some of them even have lemons.**

**Sasuke: What's a lemon?**

**(Maxx whispers the definition in Sasuke's ear.)**

**(Sasuke turns pale and pukes again)**

**Sasuke: Gack! The mental images! My mind is infected!**

**Maxx: You know, I bet there's even fanfictions about SasuNaru babies.**

**Sasuke: What? But me and Naruto are both guys.**

**(Maxx gets an evil glint in her eyes)**

**Maxx: Don't underestimate the power of fanfiction!**

**(Sasuke leaves to go get therapy)**

**Maxx: Bwa ha ha!**

**No offense to any yaoi fans. **

**I just get crazy when I have sugar.**

**Please Review!**


	7. Guess who

Sakura eyes widened as she keep falling and falling, the ground getting closer and closer. She tried her best to flap her wings and gain altitude but was failing miserably. Seeing no way to stop herself from falling she thought of the best thing she could to help herself.

She saw the cloth roof above the bench where she and Shikamaru would watch the clouds; she pulled herself in the air so she would land on it because it was the best thing she saw to help break her fall.

Landing right on the cloth roof, the breath was knocked out of Sakura. She bounced back in the air a few feet on the rebound and fell on her back (and wings) on the roof of the building where the bench was.

Her wings endured most of the impact but her back was hurt pretty badly too. It felt like her wings and spine were completely crushed, causing her to spit up some blood.

And it didn't take long for Sakura to realize she couldn't get up. Since her legs were completely useless, but she could use her upper body strength to lift herself up, we all know how strong she is. But her wings were too heavy for her to lift.

'_Kuso.'_ She thought. But using her strength to the fullest she managed to flip over on her stomach. So she reached her hand to her back and wings and healed them. Once her wings were good enough to flap she slowly raised herself into the air and on her feet, in the most literally sense when you can't use your feet.

Sakura had no idea why she fell though, but she thought it best to forget about it not to worry anyone.

She flew back down to Kiba and saw he was waiting for her right outside of Ichiraku. When he saw her he grinned and said, "Hey! How was your flight?"

Sakura smiled at him before answering.

'_Oh it was great! My wings clipped and I nearly died and you as my bodyguard didn't notice anything. But hey I survived right?'_

That's what she wanted to say but she just answered, "It was fine."

Kiba turned his head and saw something that put an expression on his face that Sakura couldn't recognize. "Well look whose back."

Sakura's eyes turned with her head to meet what Kiba was looking at. "Shikamaru's back so soon?" Then Sakura's fist clenched unconsciously as she saw that Temari was with him.

Shikamaru and Temari were walking in the direction toward Sakura and Kiba with their arms locked, obviously flirting. Sakura felt a pang of something in her chest, not knowing what it was she dismissed it as after pain from her fall.

Then Sakura blinked and the world's color scheme seemed to be completely screwed up. Sakura had to shut her eyes tight before she could see normally again.

"Hey," Kiba said concern thick in his voice, "Are you okay?"

Sakura just shock her head and smiled, "I'm fine." She insisted before she looked back at the approaching couple. "No I'm really sick; really I've got to leave right now!" She said quickly not caring if it was convincing in the least. She pulled out her wings in one swift motion and flapped them rapidly to speed off into the sky but she hit the bottom of the canopy of the restaurants on the side of the street.

"Damn it!" She cursed because her chances of getting an exit without Shikamaru or Temari noticing her were lost. Shikamaru and Kiba just blinked but Temari couldn't help but chuckle. Sakura repositioned her flight and flew off with her face as pink as her hair, embarrassed.

Kiba desperately chased after her like Naruto in a dream running to catch a bowl of flying ramen. Kiba cried after Sakura, "Hey! Wait up!" But Sakura didn't care and flew high enough in the sky so that no one could see her even if someone had super-amplified binoculars, the kind that would burn your eyes in a millisecond if you used them to look at the sun.

Kiba gave up running after her, hoping that he would find her later before Tsunade had a chance to get mad at him because he had heard it was painful when she threw her chair at someone.

Temari ran towards him, "Hey! Kiba! What was with Sakura? Why did she fly off just now? Didn't she see us?"

Kiba was silent for a second trying to contemplate how to answer her questions, while waiting for Shikamaru to catch up to them and for Temari to stop giving him an 'Are you mentally challenged? Answer me already!' look.

"Well maybe it's because _someone_ missed her surprise birthday party because he was off on a date." Kiba said with blunt irritation obvious in every word as he looked directly at Shikamaru giving him a slight glare.

Shikamaru didn't say it but _'troublesome'_ was written all over his face. But that was before his brain actually processed what Kiba had said. "What? I missed Sakura's birthday party? When was it?"

Kiba blinked, "I thought you knew. It was a week ago, I told Temari to tell you but she said you guys were busy because you had a date planned. I just figured she told you and you decided to go on the date instead of going to Sakura's party."

Shikamaru's eyebrows knitted together. "Temari never told me about a surprise party."

"Oops! I guess I forgot to tell you! I forgot! I'm sorry Shikamaru!" Temari pleaded.

'_I didn't forget actually I just conveniently happen to not tell you until it was too late, but that's the same thing right?'_

"Troublesome." Shikamaru said shaking his head.

"Ah, whatever. Look I need to go find Sakura before Tsunade has my head, literally; because I'm the temporary bodyguard Tsunade assigned for Sakura while you were gone on your mission." Kiba stopped himself in half-step. "Wait, why are you back so soon?"

Shikamaru groaned, "It turned out that the mission request from the Sand was for the Mist Village and not for our Leaf Village. So I went all the way to the Sand Village only to be told that. It was all very troublesome."

"But since he was there it gave us a chance to hang out so I came back with him" Temari said locking her arm with Shikamaru's again, smiling.

"Well isn't that convenient." Kiba muttered under his breath too low for anyone to hear.

"Hey you know, I have something I need to discuss with Sakura so I need to go find her. Bye!" Temari said running off.

------

Sakura landed down in the training grounds a good ways away from Kiba, Shikamaru, and Temari. She rested against a tree and closed her eyes to take a nap, at least until a squirrel happened to drop a nut square on her forehead. But Sakura's glare scared it away before it could do it again. Yet when she closed her eyes again she was awaken by a voice, the voice of the person she least wanted to hear at that moment in time-

Temari

"Hey, Sakura! There you are!" Temari said as she walked over to her.

Sakura glared at her, "What do you want?"

Temari sat down next to her before answering, "Look, I know you're jealous of me and Shikamaru. I just wanted to talk to you so we could get back on good terms."

'_We were on good terms? When do we ever talk?' _Sakura thought to herself. Then what Temari had said fully hit her brain. "I'm not jealous of you and Shikamaru! I don't feel that way about him we're just friends!"

Temari laughed to herself. "I didn't mean it that way. I just meant that it seemed that you were jealous of the fact that I have a boyfriend when you don't."

'_Yeah right, why the hell would I be jealous of you?'_ Sakura thought bitterly. "I don't care about having a boyfriend."

Temari frowned, "Well I only mentioned that because I have a date with Shikamaru tonight and I was wondering if you wanted to make it a double date? I know this guy who is totally your type. I mean I know you would love-"

"No." Sakura said flatly

"No really Sakura! I mean you are an attractive 16 year old girl! You need a boyfriend and I seriously have a guy who I know you'd get along with!" Temari insisted.

Sakura gave her a cold-faced stare. "Will you get off my back if I say yes?" Temari nodded eagerly. "And is this guy as annoying as you?" Temari said "No." Sakura sighed, "Ok, fine."

(That Night)

"Sakura you look nervous! You shouldn't be! You look great!" Temari said encouraging her. (Sakura was wearing a sleek, casual black dress to compliment her figure, a deep blue jean jacket to cover up her wings and her make-up was done courtesy of Temari overall she looked very attractive)

"Of course you're going to say that, you were the one who insisted on doing my make-up and picking out my outfit. I thought our agreement was that you would get off my back." Sakura said a little irritated.

"Hey look we're at the restaurant!" Temari chimed happily completely ignoring Sakura's last comment.

Temari led Sakura into the restaurant but one look at her date and Sakura pulled her out of it as quick and as harsh as she could before Shikamaru and her date could spot them.

"That's the guy you thought was my type? Are you kidding me?" Sakura snapped at Temari in a harsh whisper.

**A/N: Ah Ha! So I'm not dead! I could come up with a lot of excuses for why I didn't update but I don't think any of you guys really care now that I've finally updated, at least I hope not. I don't know when I'll update next I'll have to update my other stories first but hopefully it will be soon.**

**O-o who is Sakura's date? I guess it's now a habit of mine to leave cliffhangers. **

**Thanks to all my reviewers again! Sorry I took so long to update!**

**Please Review!**


	8. The First Date

Temari's smile was getting nervous, "Oh come oh! Do you really know him? How do you know he's not your type?"

Sakura tried to calm down a little, "Temari, I'm really not interested in your brother."

"Please! Just get to know him! I'm sure you two will get along great!" Temari told her enthusiastically to try and convince her.

"Temari, that guy almost killed me remember? Three years ago at the Chuunin exams? I'm not exactly thrilled to be set up on a date with him." Sakura told her.

Temari had to take a second to think of something to response that convince Sakura to go out with Gaara, she sighed. "Sakura, look, Gaara had a lot of problems back then but he's gotten better I promise. I really think you guys would hit it off, please give him a chance?"

Sakura would have left but the power of Temari's puppy eyes was too strong for her.

Sakura sighed, "Fine."

"Yay!" Temari cheered in victory.

(In the Restaurant)

"Did they just run out of the restaurant in fear?" Shikamaru asked.

"Must be you." Gaara told him.

Sakura and Temari entered the restaurant.

'_They're looking at us weird they must have seen us run out the door, darn I wasn't quick enough.'_ Sakura thought to herself nervously.

"So, hi!" Temari said as she and Sakura sat down at the table.

"Hi." Gaara and Shikamaru said almost simultaneously.

"Hey Gaara." Sakura said trying to be friendly.

"Hey." Gaara said.

'_He looks really tense and nervous.' _ Sakura noticed when she looked at Gaara.

Sakura decided to try and start a conversation, "So, Gaara, how have things been in the Sand Village lately?" her eye twitched, _'Was that all I could think of to say?'_

"Good." Gaara said, saying nothing that could help to continue the conversation.

Sakura paused, now she couldn't think of anything to say.

'_Smooth Gaara, real smooth.' _Temari thought to herself as she glared slightly at Gaara. _'If you weren't so hot you'd never get a girlfriend without me.'_

'_I'll say one thing for Gaara he sure did get really hot.'_ Not that Sakura wouldn't ever admit it she and Temari did think alike…

Shikamaru just sat there watching the awkward scene. He had already figured out that Temari was going to pay more attention to setting Gaara and Sakura up than to their date so he just waited in his seat patiently.

"So what's it like being the Kazekage?" Sakura asked. _'Am I on a date with him or is this an interview?'_ she thought as she cursed herself for her current lack of conversation skills.

"It's fine." Gaara said. "Everyone respects me but most people still don't trust me."

"I'm sorry that everyone still has their doubts about trusting you, but that just means that if you do really good in your job they'll be proven wrong about you." Sakura smiled slightly.

"Well, I didn't say _everyone _doesn't trust me." Gaara admitted, "There is that annoying fan club that keeps stalking me."

Sakura started laughing, she couldn't help it.

'_Nice Gaara, mention your stalker wannabe girlfriends to get the girl to start to like you.'_ Temari thought, _'Well, whatever works for you.'_

"You have fangirls now? Wow." Sakura kept smiling, "I remember when Sasuke had his own fanclub, and they would attack any girl who was within five feet of him."

"My fanclub is just as vicious," Gaara told her. "They attacked Temari because they thought she was 'hanging around me too much'. They aren't very good stalkers if they didn't know she's my sister."

"They aren't very good stalkers? Isn't that a good thing?" Sakura asked him.

"Good point." Gaara smiled, finally starting to relax.

"So is the Sand Village a lot like the Konoha?" Sakura asked him, getting a little better at starting conversation.

"Take away the sweltering heat, and the mountains of sand, and I could call it home." Gaara said still smiling.

And so the date went on like that, Gaara and Sakura continued to flirt, Temari watched them like a proud mother out of the corner of her eye as she gave Shikamaru most of her attention.

---------

"So was he hell on earth in the shape of an attractive guy to fool you so that he could drag you down into the depths of the underworld?" Temari asked her as they walked home together from the date.

"No. He wasn't." Sakura then began to process exactly what Temari had said, "Wait, you did just ask me if he wasn't as bad as I thought right?"

"If I heard myself correctly." Temari said. "I told you he was your type!"

"He is nice, you were right. Ok?" Sakura said.

"Yay!" Temari smiled, "But I'll be sure to remind you when guys start going out for real, get engaged, get married, have kids and I'm an aunt!"

"Don't push it." Sakura told her.

----------

"Aren't you glad I set you two up?" Temari asked as she and Gaara walked home to the Sand Village.

"You were right. How many times do I have to say it?" Gaara asked unable to actually get irritated with his sister because he was in such a good mood.

"I just knew you too would really like each other, I mean I already knew you liked her but for such a feared ninja you really are shy." Temari said.

"You know I have my reasons." Gaara pointed out, trying to maintain his pride.

"But just remember one thing, if you want to have a good relationship you can't keep any secrets." Temari said a small tone of seriousness in her voice.

"I know."

**A/N: Shikamaru and Temari are together, Gaara and Sakura are now together but this is a ShikaSaku fanfic, so what will happen? O.o sorry the chapter is short but that's where I needed to end it. It's obvious that I've made Temari a little OOC but I read on Wikipedia Temari shows up in Naruto a lot for fights but her personality is mostly unexplored, so is she OOC? O.o and sorry if I made Gaara OOC. **

**Please Review!**

**P.S. June 21****st****!! It's the first day of summer!! My birthday - partly the reason I updated this story today. So I hope you guys enjoyed it - see ya next time! Got to go eat my cake, it's Maximum Ride themed big surprise lol. Bye!!! Time for me to go get sugar high!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! **


	9. Never been kissed, Never been told

About a month had passed since Sakura had started dating Gaara, and they were getting along great, so great in fact that Gaara kind of replaced Shikamaru as her bodyguard because they were together so much and Shikamaru was busy with Temari. But, in a so called 'perfect' relationship, you are either extremely lucky or someone's keeping a secret.

"Look Gaara!" Sakura squealed in delight, "Aren't they adorable?" she said as she held up the puppy figurines she had found while looking around the marketplace with Gaara.

Gaara looked at the puppies and started to back away slightly, the little eyes that the puppies had were staring up at him and he didn't like it, he wouldn't admit it to Sakura but they were kinda creepy.

"Gaara!" Sakura whined with a puppy dog pout, "You haven't answered me. Are they or are they not adorable?"

Gaara coughed, "Well... they certainly are..." he stared down at the puppies searching his mind for anything that could be a compliment where he didn't have to lie. "pink..."

Sakura's eyebrows dropped, she looked at him like 'ok i get it you don't care.' but to Gaara, who had overreacted and amphilifed it in his mind it said 'YOU FAIL!' so being the good boyfriend he was he managed to turn the conversation around.

"It looks better on you." He said as he lightly touched her hair.

"Well aren't you swe-" she was cut off when someone running past bumped into her and because she wasn't able to move her feet she fell into Gaara's arms.

Sakura looked up at him and blushed, Gaara looked down at her face...and Sakura raised her head up and moved her lips closer to his, who was moving in as well but there was something hesitant in the way he was about to kiss her.

And just as their lips were about to touch- "Hey Sakura!"

Sakura jerked her head around to see who it was calling her, as Gaara breathed a silent sigh of relief when Sakura had turned around.

"Oh hey Temari!" Sakura said as she stepped out of Gaara's arms, put the puppies back in the stand, and walked in the way she could with wings over to her friend.

Temari took a little while to answer, her brain had just realized exactly what she had done, _'Crap! I came at just the wrong time! They were about to kiss!'_ she screamed in her head.

"Hey!" Temari said as she calmed her brain down, "So what's up with the happy couple?"

"We're good! I mean we were just browsing around the market, right Gaara?" Sakura asked.

Gaara nodded but didn't seem to be paying attention.

Sakura frowned, "He was just about to buy me these cute puppy figurines weren't you Gaara?"

He nodded, but Sakura knew he wasn't listening.

"I was about to strip off all my clothes and fly around the marketplace naked right Gaara?" Sakura said to test him.

Gaara was about to nod but stopped. "Wait, what did you say?"

Sakura shook her head and turned around to face Temari, "Men. The gender born without the eardrums."

Temari laughed and Gaara glared at her.

"So how's everything with you and Shikamaru?" Sakura asked.

"We're good, everything is going great." Temari said and the conversation kinda died after that.

"... So Gaara, me and Sakura need to have a girl talk, so..go away." Temari told him.

Gaara glared at her but still walked away without a complaint.

"So..." Temari said as she locked arms with Sakura and led her to the usual Ramen stand. "How is everything with you and Gaara?"

Sakura acted a little nervous when she sat down but she and Temari were close enough now to where she could tell her everything. "Well...its just..." Sakura paused for a moment as Temari silented urged her to continue. "Its just that Gaara and I have been dating for a month now and we haven't even-" she paused again. "We haven't even kissed yet."

Temari put a surprised expression on her face but in reality she wasn't surprised at all. _'I guess i'll have to talk to Gaara later.' _she thought to herself.

"Really? I have to admit I'm a little surprised but I know Gaara, and this is his first relationship so he is just nervous and wants to take things slow." Temari told her, carefully phrasing her words so she wasn't lying. "Don't hold it against him, ok?" She smiled lightly.

Sakura took her words into consideration and nodded. "I guess you're right but this is my first relationship too, and if it didn't seem so awkward i would have kissed him a long time ago." Sakura smiled.

Temari smiled too.

(Later)

"Gaara, Gaara, Gaara." Temari shook her head. "I told you that if you wanted to have a good relationship then you couldn't keep any secrets!"

"I know." Gaara sighed.

"You need to tell her!"

"I know." Gaara said.

"I mean you guys have been dating for a month and you haven't even kissed her yet! You haven't kissed her because you feel guilty about keeping secrets!"

"I know! I know! Temari damn it!" Gaara started to get angry. "Don't you think I know all this stuff by now? I know i need to tell her but i can't! I just can't!" he punched the wall and sighed to calm himself down.

"Gaara..." Temari walked over to him and place her hand on his shoulder to comfrot him. "I know that you think you can't, but once she knows, she'll forgive you."

"I don't think she will...I really don't think she can..." Gaara sighed again and lowered his fist from the wall. "I think that if I was her I wouldn't be able to."

"But she's not you Gaara!" Temari told him, "She's not you, she's Sakura and Sakura will be able to forgive you."

"So I really should tell her." Gaara said but his tone made him sound like he was asking a question.

"Yes! You need to!" Temari said happy that she had finally gotten through to her brother.

(Meanwhile while this was going on... in another part of Konoha...)

"Some days I wish I was a cloud, a cloud that could soar over all the people and just watch their problems from a distance instead of being involved with this troublesome world." Shikamaru sighed as he lied down on his favorite roof spot to watch the clouds. _'I haven't been able to see Sakura lately, she's always with Gaara but that's understandible, he is her boyfriend after all. And with me I'm always with Temari, but she is my girlfriend...but Gaara and Temari are both sand ninja and Gaara is the Kazekage so how come they are always able to spend time in Konoha?' _his thoughts were interrupted by a gust of wind on the roof that caught his attention.

He looked up to see Sakura landing on the roof. "Oh hi Sakura." Shikamaru muttered out a quick greeting after the surprise took its grip off his throat.

"Oh hi Shikamaru!" She smiled as she fluttered her wings over so she could sit by Shikamaru. "We haven't been able to talk in a while have we?"

"No we've both been busy." Shikamaru answered.

Sakura looked up at the sky, yawned and lied down, "Yeah, but its kind of funny. Remember when you were first assigned as my bodyguard and everyone thought we were dating because we had never hung out before that?" He smiled lightly as he gave her a nod and Sakura continued, "And now we haven't talked in a while and we miss each other, I guess we've managed to become pretty good friends." She looked over and smiled at him. "I don't really have any other friends that I can just lie down and watch the clouds with."

"That's true but you haven't been doing that much lately, have you?" He asked her.

"Nope." She said honestly, "Instead of watching the clouds I go and fly up in the sky with them." She grinned.

"I can only imagine." Shikamaru said.

Sakura thought for a moment. "Well maybe I'll take you with me sometime, would you like that?" She asked.

"Just as long as you don't drop me." Shikamaru said.

Sakura rolled her eyes, "Hmm, so tempting..." She joked.

For a second Shikamaru almost believed her but when she started to laugh he laughed along with her.

"As if I would actually do that to yo-" Sakura started to say when she finished laughing but her vision started to screw up and she started to see in all the wrong colors. She sat up as her head started to ache, she shut her eyes tight but her head started to throb even worse when-

"Hey are you ok?" Shikamaru asked.

Sakura opened her eyes and suddenly the headache and the problem with her eyesight was gone. She shook her head in frustration, she didn't really understand what had just happened.

"Sakura? Are you ok?" Shikamaru repeated trying to get a response.

Sakura looked over at him. "Oh, yeah I'm fine." She smiled to convince him that she was okay.

Shikamaru still had a worried look on his face though, Sakura hadn't completely convinced him.

"Well, I think I need to go find Gaara, last I saw him Temari was dragging him away so I think he would appreciate it if i gave him an excuse to get away." She said to change the subject as she got up and started to open her wings to the air. "So I'll see you later Shikamaru!" She said as she flew away.

Shikamaru watched her disappear into the sky, but then he looked down to discover she had left a feather behind. He picked it up and looked at it. "Smells like cherry blossoms." He said to himself.

(Back to Temari and Gaara)

Sakura landed outside of Gaara's temporary Konoha apartment, she closed in her wings gently so as not to make a sound. She walked over to the door and saw that it was left open a crack. She looked through it and saw Gaara and Temari talking.

"Gaara, lets go through it one more time, remind me and tell me the whole thing." She heard Temari say.

Sakura would have interrupted them and said hello but she decided not to when she started to hear things that she never would have expected, or wanted to hear.

**A/N: Cliffhanger again, sheez first I don't update for months and then I leave a cliffhanger! I am so evil :) Sorry but this is where I needed to end it for the next chapter. Which will hopefully be up in a few weeks, hopefully... **

**So what is the secret that Gaara hasn't told Sakura O.o? Only the next chapter will tell :)**

**Thanks to all the people who read and review this story and put up with all my laziness, nonupdates, and cliffhangers! I really appreciated you guys:)**

**Please Review!**


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